What I'm saying is this. I'm a (fairly typical I suspect) first year beekeeper. I've never handled bees before so I didn't consider swarm catching or removals an option. I've never even seen a swarm.
David,
I'm a 1st year Beek too. So far I have:
Made a nuc by taking 2 frames from my hive, and added a mated queen I bought,
Did a cutout
Did a swarm removal
Am half way through a trapout which are raising their own queen
I see no reason why 1st year beeks shouldn't have a go at doing swarms, cutouts and trapouts. I have found that in the process of doing these I have learnt more about bees than doing anything else, especially with the trapout. It is VERY daunting the 1st time but now it is just fun :-D.
The cutout I did died (SHB) - learnt heaps about brood, SHB infestation timeline and more
The swarm I collected was/went queenless and is almost dead - learnt heaps about signs and effects of queenless hives, as well as more about SHB infestation and treatments
The trapout I'm still doing is going great - learning more still about SHB and where they hide, emergency queen raising, bee psychology (what makes them tick) etc
I guess as bad as they have turned out, I would prefer to lose those 'free' hives rather than lose several hives that I paid good money for, as I don't plan to make those same mistakes again! The biggest thing that I learn from all of this is that if I had more than 1 hive I probably could have saved those hives by boosting them with brood or bees or both, or eggs to raise an emergency queen etc. I now plan to have at the very least a spare nuc in my backyard, but hope to have a few nucs on the go at once.
I would encourage all 1st year beeks to try to do 1 swarm collection, 1 cutout, and 1 trap out - the amount you can learn is awesome!
ML